Airdate: Monday, November 24, 2008 (strongbad_email.exe, Disc 6)
Sender: Clan
Strong Bad gets an email from self proclaimed "kindred soul" Clan, who Strong Bad claims sounds like a religious metal band that tries to "offset their religiousness with evil fonts and drippy graphics." ("ALIVE AS OOOONE!") Taking note of how many comic books are being made into movies these days, Clan asks if there will be a Strong Badman movie, as well as the ways in which it will be different from the comic. Strong Bad's answer to the kindred soul's answer is firm opposition:
From there, Strong Bad proceeds to "throw canon to the wind", and give his superhero/villain alter ego a Hollywood-style makeover/butchering in three simple steps:
- The first nitpick to take care of is Strong Badman's costume. Audiences may buy that he might have radioactive powers, or hails from another planet, but what they won't accept is an outfit of colorful spandex. So in a move Strong Bad dubs "Leatherquest 2000", Strong Badman's attire is changed to "one color, head-to-toe leather".
- Next up is Strong Badman's mask. Noting that no actor in their right mind would "let you pull a mask over their beautiful face the entire movie", Strong Bad decides that the mask has got to go, trimming it down so that the person wearing it just has the green eyes... and a Strong Bad cap.
- Lastly, there's the most important part of making a comic book movie: "screwing up the casting". Instead of having Strong Badman played by an actor appropriate for such a role like "Lan Handermannek" (Per Strong Bad: "That's not a real actor or anything, I just like the sound of... 'Lan Handermannek is Strong Badman!'"), Strong Badman should be played by someone who has absolutely no business portraying a superhero/villain. In this case, Crack Stuntman!
With the main character taken care of (i.e. totally ruined), it's time to move onto the movie's supporting cast. In Strong Bad's mind, this amounts in choosing one random character to be rendered entirely in computer graphics "when make-up, puppets, or models would clearly be way more convincing." For a demonstration, Strong Bad picks The Cheat, who has been illustrated with a more bipedal, monstrous appearance.
As for the movie's plot, Strong Bad has a formula for that, too: scribble down all the best elements of the comic's lore on some note cards, throw them up in the air, and when they land, pick at least ten of them to paste at random into "a paper-thin plot with more holes in it than Halle Berry's Catwoman costume!"
Tropes:
- Mangled Catchphrase: Crack Stuntman turns Strong Badman's "Stiny, get me a danish!" into "Shiny, throw me that donut!" Strong Bad declares it perfect, since the whole point of the email is to mock inaccuracies in movie adaptations of comic books.
- Marquee Alter Ego: Strong Bad says that "No actor is gonna let you pull a mask over their beautiful face the entire movie", so Strong Badman's costume is altered to pare down the mask, eventually replacing it altogether with green-tinted shades and a ball cap with Strong Bad's face on it.
- Movie Superheroes Wear Black: Discussed. Strong Bad thinks that movie executives think their audience won't accept a colorful superhero costume, so they cover Strong Badman's body in black leather in a move Strong Bad calls "LeatherQuest 2000".
- Random Events Plot: Strong Bad suggests making a comic book movie by literally picking random elements from the comic's lore to incorporate into the script.
- Serkis Folk: Parodied, Strong Bad says that your typical superhero movie will replace one of the supporting cast, seemingly at random, with CGI instead of practical effects. In this case, The Cheat is represented by a wiggling humanoid version of himself.
- Take That!: The short is one long jab at movie adaptations of comic books, particularly those from the 90's to the late 2000's.
